After a world-record streak, India have plunged into depths of Test cricket on home soil they have not encountered in decades, writes Abhishek Mukherjee.
Indian cricket fans are hurt, and justifiably so. Few things can hurt at cricket more than a 0-3 clean sweep against New Zealand and – barring a truly astonishing turnaround – 0-2 against South Africa, especially if they come off the back of 18 consecutive series wins at home.
For most defeats, the long-awaited T20 World Cup or Champions Trophy titles would have come across as soothing balms to counter them. Unfortunately, this decline has been too steep, too rapid, too dramatic for anyone to get accustomed to it.
The India Test side is undergoing a transition. R Ashwin, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Cheteshwar Pujara have retired. Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, and Ajinkya Rahane have been phased out. Mohammed Shami’s future seems uncertain. Jasprit Bumrah’s workload needs to be managed.
However, India teams have undergone transitions before. Never had they faced ignominy of this order at home since their 15-Test winless streak in the first half of the 1980s.
Before understanding India’s current slide, it is pertinent to look back at their 18-series run of home series wins.
The spectrum of Indian pitches
Indian pitches are typically turning wickets, but that adjective is a spectrum. Turning tracks are not uniform. The range varies.
Over the first phase of their home invincibility, India used to roll out “normal” turners where Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took wickets at will, while the third spinner and the fast bowlers played their part. This coincided with Kohli’s absurd peak. Pujara & co got hundreds as well, and all was well.
They did resort to extreme spin – the 2014/15 series against South Africa, for example – but a rude shock against Australia at Pune in 2016/17 convinced them to revert to Plan A. If visiting teams piled up runs, India simply responded by scoring even more runs.
Then, at Chennai in 2020/21, England won the toss and Joe Root churned out a double ton. The pitch, having played well until then, began to deteriorate, and India sank to their first home defeat since Pune 2016/17. England played superb cricket, but they also had the advantage of the toss.
That forced them to revert to extreme turners. The spinners averaged 36.12 in the first Test: in the next three, they averaged 21.43, 8.82 (no typo), and 22.80. It did not matter who batted first: the Tests were over too quickly for that advantage to play out. India’s superior spinners, coupled with batters with less fallibility against spin gave them an advantage over touring sides.
Yet, in their next home Test, against New Zealand at Kanpur, India failed to convert their advantage to a win. “I know wickets here can be tough, but this was probably even lower and slower than anything I have experienced here,” said Rahul Dravid after the game. “If you wanted to block and not score runs, it was difficult to get you out.”
Normally, one draw would not have hurt India, the World Test Championship points system discouraged draws: at four points, a draw was closer to a defeat than a win. From 29.60 in Kanpur, spin average dropped from 18.18 in the next Test, at Mumbai.
By the time Australia came over in early 2023, the template had been set. India went 2-1 up on minefields where the spin averages read 18.79, 20.78, 16.84. “Toss is not a factor at all in this series,” confessed Rohit. Indeed, all three Tests were won by teams who batted second.
Ahead of the series decider, Dravid re-emphasised on result-oriented tracks, reminding everyone of the Kanpur draw against New Zealand: “You draw a game like Kanpur against New Zealand ... that sets you back, in a home game. Every team is getting results at home or are putting in really good performances at home, so there is a premium on results. You get four points for a draw and you get 12 for a win, so there is a premium on that, there's no question about it.” India were still happy to settle for a draw on a flat deck in the decider.
Against England in early 2024, India reverted to “normal” turners for at least the first three Tests. Later that year, they beat Bangladesh twice – on a seaming track in Chennai and a flat wicket in Kanpur. It seemed they were trying to adopt their Plan A.
Then came New Zealand.
Wretched luck and questionable tactics
After India were blown out for 46 and lost the first Test against the BlackCaps, Rohit admitted that opting to bat on a seaming Bengaluru surface was a blunder. One-down in the series, India dished out two rank turners (spin average 20.02 and 19.73). The toss was not supposed to matter, but it did at Pune when India collapsed in the first innings before the demons had properly begun to show. New Zealand completed the rout with a 25-run win at Mumbai.
For the next visitors, the West Indies, India decided to put their bowlers (especially spinners) through sterner tests. Ahmedabad did not turn square. Delhi was so flat that it drew criticism from Gautam Gambhir. India’s superior skills and experience helped them sweep the series.
South Africa were a greater threat. Instead of pushing their advantage in these conditions to a win, India resorted to a “lottery wicket” (spin average 15.81, the lowest since Ahmedabad 2020/21) at Kolkata and picked four spinners, three of them all-rounders. It backfired. South Africa won the toss. India lost Shubman Gill to a neck injury. The fourth spinner was predictably reduced to a specialist bat. India lost by 30 runs.
One may argue that the margin was close, especially in a 10 versus 11 contest. There is merit in that, especially since the Mumbai defeat had been by a small margin as well. Having learnt their lesson after the Kolkata debacle, India switched to Plan A again. Unfortunately, they lost the toss, which turned out to be vital.
One can claim that some luck at the toss and the correct decision at Bengaluru, the 0-4 could have resulted in 4-0. It is a valid point, but what-ifs do not determine the legacies of time: results do. And India’s recent results look particularly abysmal after a world record of 18 home series wins.
Another factor needs to be mentioned as well. In 2012/13, Monty Panesar was in his third tour of India and Graeme Swann his second. Nathan Lyon has now toured India thrice. Like them, Ajaz Patel and Mitchell Santner had Indian tours under their belt when they arrived in 2024/25, as did Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj this year. They had pace support, and their batters adapted brilliantly, matching the Indians if not exceeding them.
India had ordinary luck and made some questionable decisions. But it cannot be denied that they lost to South Africa and New Zealand in battles of skills.
